A MODERN EXPRESS PASSENGER ENGINE.
This engine, No. 1870 of the North Eastern Railway, was built in 1896 by the Gateshead works. It is a “non-compound” engine, with the largest coupled driving wheels hitherto known, viz., 7 ft. 7 in. The diameter of the cylinders inside is 20 in. A sister engine (No. 1869) was constructed at the same time, and the weight of each of them with tender fully loaded is over 90 tons.
THE GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY BROAD GAUGE ENGINE “NORTH STAR.”
This engine was designed by Sir Daniel Gooch in 1836 and built by Robert Stephenson & Co. in 1837. It was one of the first engines belonging to the Great Western Railway Company, and continued at work until 1870, running a total distance of 429,000 miles.
The application of another of the forces of Nature to the service of human intercourse has brought about a change in political, military, social, and commercial relations even more complete than that wrought by steam. |Electric Telegraph.| The invention of the electric telegraph coincided very nearly with the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign. In 1835 Mr. Morse, an American citizen, produced a working model of an instrument designed to communicate alphabetical symbols by the interruption of the electric current, but he failed to persuade Congress to furnish him with the funds necessary to the practical application of his discovery. Next year he tried to take out a patent for it in this country; but, meanwhile, Cooke and Wheatstone had anticipated him with one instrument, and the brothers Highton with another, both of which were soon in use on railways. The growth of this means of communication may be seen in the “Post Office Annual,” which shows that in the year 1895–96 about seventy-nine million telegrams were delivered through the Post Office, besides those dealt with by certain public companies.
J. Doyle (“H. B.”).] [“Political Sketches,” 1838.
LA BELLE ALLIANCE.